Beeyond Buzzwords: Coordination
At our team retreat in May 2025, we ran an exercise critiquing our strategic plan. A question came up that stuck with us: What do we actually mean by coordination?
In our line of work, we use a lot of terminology that may seem clear on the surface but is understood slightly differently by everyone. Without clarity, these words risk turning into ‘buzzwords’ (pun very much intended). As Hive, we talk about being a digital hub for farmed animal advocates, improving coordination and collaboration across the movement. But what does that really mean in practice?
We decided to step back and reflect: do we share the same understanding of coordination, and does that understanding reflect what we want Hive to do and how we can do it better? Together, we defined coordination, identified examples inside and outside Hive, and explored where we could be doing more.
This post is the first in a series where we’ll unpack some of the terms we use most often. By making our language more transparent, we hope to make Hive’s work, and our role in the movement clearer to everyone.
Coordination vs. Collaboration: An Important Distinction
Coordination and collaboration are not the same. As Megan Jamer, our Communications Lead put it wonderfully:
“If someone has trouble walking, you say they’re “uncoordinated,” not that their legs are “uncollaborative”. The legs are there, they’re just not working together as a complementary whole. ”
Coordination is about the entire body (in this case the farmed animal advocacy movement) moving as a single unit. It's about acting with full context, being aware of what every "leg" (organization or individual) is doing, so you can make informed plans. It’s a higher-level function.
Collaboration is when two or more "legs" actively work together on a specific thing. It's a key part of coordination, but it's not the whole story.
You could have a highly collaborative movement where some groups work closely together, but if they're not aware of each other's efforts, they might still be poorly coordinated: duplicating work or missing obvious opportunities.
The Problems We're Trying to Solve
So, with this distinction in mind, what kind of problems does better coordination actually solve? The immediate answer that comes to mind is that coordination helps us work more efficiently; a benefit that’s valuable in itself and shouldn’t be overlooked. But as we reflected together as a team, we realized coordination is about much more than this:
Avoiding duplication of effort: This was a major point. Hive helps people avoid unknowingly working on the same projects, saving precious time and resources. While not all duplication is wasted effort (some work is worth being done by multiple people) nearly all work benefits from knowing where similar work is already underway.
Filling in the gaps: When we improve coordination, we can highlight and fill gaps in the movement. This might be a missing project, an unserved region, or an untapped strategy.
Better strategy and "trades": Coordinated efforts can lead to more advanced strategies, like a "good-cop, bad-cop" approach in campaigns. Another powerful idea was the concept of "trades," where one organization does something that's easy for them but hard for another, and vice versa.
Better informed decision-making: This is perhaps the most fundamental part. By creating spaces for connection, Hive helps useful learnings get passed between groups, improving knowledge flow and enabling better informed decisions, while ensuring no one has to reinvent the wheel.
How Does Hive Improve Coordination?
Our work addresses multiple areas with a unified approach: Bring everyone and everything together and let them talk. Our team reflected on projects that took shape on Hive Slack. Whether through discussions, moments where the right call enabled quick and urgent support, or instances where we avoided duplication of efforts. What’s more, we have a shared, general sense of improved knowledge flow and awareness; something we hope enables better-informed decisions all around.
What we realized is that coordination doesn’t happen by just getting everyone into the same virtual room. It often requires nudges and proactive facilitation - “hands-on community building” if you will (more on that “Buzzword” soon).
We explored various ways to ensure better coordination: from serendipitous “You Two Should Talk” initiatives to creating and sharing template packs for organizations to use, and spending dedicated time to stay up to date on what everyone is doing and finding room for improved coordination, particularly in region-specific contexts. This kind of work isn't easy, and there are blockers. We need to be mindful of our own capacity, and we need a clear strategy to ensure we're facilitating, not owning, these efforts.
Ultimately, the consensus was clear: coordination is not just a fluffy buzzword. It’s the scaffolding that helps the movement grow stronger. It’s what keeps us walking smoothly, with every limb moving in complement. Our job is to build that scaffolding, one connection at a time.
How You Can Use Hive to Coordinate Better
Hive isn't just a platform to passively consume information; it's a living tool for coordination. Here's how you can make the most of it and, in turn, help strengthen the entire ecosystem:
Share Your Context: Before starting a new project, share a quick summary of your idea in the relevant channel (e.g., if it’s about fishes, share it in #c-aquatic-animals). What problem are you trying to solve? What have you already tried? This is how we avoid duplication, spark serendipitous connections, and find collaborators who can help you move things forward more effectively.
Update others on your work: Even when you are not about to start something entirely new, share your work - e.g., in our #08-news-updates channel! Other people may be interested in pursuing something similar, or your work may spark a new, complementary idea.
Be a Connector: If you see two people who should talk, or a project that could benefit from a specific person’s expertise, make a warm introduction. This kind of proactive matchmaking is a high-leverage way to strengthen the entire community and is often the missing spark for a major coordination win. Learn more about being a super-connector here!
Treat the Community as a Resource: Don't just use Hive for questions. Use it to stay aware of what others are doing. Use the search bar, check out our channels, and pay attention to what's being shared. This kind of awareness is the essence of good coordination, allowing you to make better-informed decisions.
By making our work more visible and being proactive in connecting with others, we turn Hive from a simple platform into a powerful engine for coordinated action.
